I remember being at a martial arts summer camp for Modern Arnis in Lansing, Michigan one summer. A Kenpo brown belt was telling Mr. Hartman and me about how great Kenpo was. She explained that, unlike in other arts, every move in Kenpo was scientifically designed for effectiveness and every move was understood and important. We asked her to demonstrate a form. She did. Afterward I asked her why she made a certain move (left arm is out from a punch, right arm goes beneath it with one finger pointing up, others bent, and rests alongside the tricep). She said, "I don't know; we just do it." She had memorized the spiel but obviously hadn't thought about it. In fact, I don't think the contradictiuon even registered for her. I knew one interpretation of the move from a Kung Fu teacher...who didn't regard it as a fighting technique.
At my first tournament I fought a slightly higher-ranked Kenpoist who had been studying longer than I had. I beat him 3-0 on two roundhouse kicks and a reverse punch. Afterwards he came up to me...to explain that, according to Kenpo principles, I was doing the roundhouse kick incorrectly. I told him I was studying Karate, but he still insisted that the kick was wrong. I didn't point out that it was good enough to score on him twice, unanswered. I'll spare everyone the story of another Kenpo brown belt 'teaching' me how to hold an arnis stick at an arnis camp at which I was an instructor. She even used Ed Parker's name in explaining to me what I was doing wrong. Let's just say that I, uh, disagreed with her analysis.
I could go on at great length. Every art has its share of poor performers and outright nutcases, but it somehow seems to be a requirement for all the Kenpo nutcases to track me down and show me their stuff. So, I have more Kenpo horror stories than I have from any other single art. (The ones above aren't even horror stories, in fact.) The point is that the comments made about the TMA people not knowing their art and its applications could be told about Kenpoists in other circumstances. Competent instructors know their material, know how to use it, and know its limits; but, not every instructor is competent. It sounds like Seabrook may have the kind of luck with Karateka that I've had with Kenpoists...a disproportionate number of bozos. That's how the bell curve works.
I don't think most TMA floks will believe they need something like the WKKA program. I don't think most of them think they have a deficiency in this area. In grappling or weapons, maybe, but not here. That doesn't mean they're right...but in all likelihood they have in their art the tools for effective self-defense, whether they train it well or not.
).
